


A Fine Colt

by Tarlan



Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Gen, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-02-02
Updated: 2004-02-02
Packaged: 2017-10-17 08:37:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/174952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris decides to settle down now he has put the ghosts of Sarah and Adam to rest, but things are never that easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fine Colt

It cost more than he could afford but Chris was more than happy with the results. The mare he had bought several months back was a beauty in line and form, and certainly a match for any he had seen out at Ella's ranch that time. Silently, he wondered what had become of those horses, eventually deciding that they would have been sold off with the money going to some distant relative of Ella's murdered husband.

Like Ella, though, he had no intention of keeping his prize mare as a saddle horse, and the high payment he had made only a few weeks earlier had borne fruit. His mare was in foal, and Chris had no doubt that the offspring of his mare with Rodger's black stallion would be worth plenty to a more discerning type, easily repaying him the cost of having his mare serviced and then ensuring she stayed healthy and delivered a strong foal.

He leaned against the corral fence and grinned as he watched her prance around, shake her head and dance as if she too had only just become aware of the incredible life growing inside her. A moment of melancholy hit Chris as he recalled the way Sarah had glowed while she carried their son, Adam, and looking back he could remember seeing a similar glow about her on that last day.

Had she fallen again? Had she discovered that they had been blessed with another child?

Her smile had been secretive, and she had been so eager to send him on his way saying it meant he would come home sooner. He had looked back once and now, in hindsight, he swore he could see her standing with her hand rubbing her belly.

That was the guilt that had always cut him the deepest. It was not just that they had been alone when Ella's hired man came for them, but that he had let Buck convince him to stay away one night longer even though he knew Sarah was eagerly waiting on his return. He had made the mistake of taking his wife and his boy for granted, and he had paid the ultimate price for his arrogance, and in the cruelest way possible. Everything and everyone he had loved and worked hard for had been razed to the ground that day leaving him nothing but the bitter taste of ashes in his mouth. He and Buck had recovered Sarah and Adam's bodies from the still smoldering remains of his home, and they had buried them in silence. Too overcome by shock and grief to pass words between them or even over the graves once Sarah and Adam had been laid to rest.

It still felt strange that all his years of wandering and searching for the killers had brought him back to within a day's ride of his burned out homestead. Now, three years on from the day he stepped out of a dusty saloon to stop a lynch mob, he finally felt at peace. A week earlier he had laid Sarah and Adam's spirits to rest when he watched Ella Gaines take a long drop on a short length of rope, courtesy of Judge Travis and the new sheriff of Eagle Bend.

The mare trotted over and Chris ran a hand across her back as she passed. "Not going to take you for granted, Lady."

He grinned and turned away, keen to finish the daily chores. Afterwards, he planned to mend the hole in the stable roof to ensure the summer storms would not ruin the hay and feed he had stored in there, for his Lady would need a dry stall and good feed in the months that lay ahead.

*****

Many months past while Chris watched the mare's belly swell as the foal grew within her. He knew her time would come soon and had already gained Nathan's promise to come out and give him a hand -- so long as no two-legged critters needed Nathan's medical skills.

Two days later, he and Nathan sank back on the dry straw covering the large stall floor and grinned inanely as the foal gained its feet and teetered slowly to his mother on unsteady legs.

"Damn. He's one fine animal, Chris." The stable had been lit by a single lamp and Nathan's wide smile reflected strongly against his dark skin, shedding a different light about Chris; one of warmth and friendship.

"Sure is," replied Chris as he pushed aside the thin rope that they had slipped round the foal's back legs and pulled to help the mare give birth. "Already got an offer... sight unseen. And more still for a colt."

Nathan slapped Chris on the shoulder, and Chris could see the genuine pleasure lighting the dark eyes. They shared the part-filled bottle of whiskey Chris had left close at hand, along with the small provisions he had prepared in case of a long vigil.

The first streaks of light from a new day slipped through the tiny gaps between the slats of wood planking that made the stable walls, and Chris rose to open the stable door and let in more of the dawn. He was tired, but it was a good tired. Nathan stood and stretched, and then he slapped his hat against his thigh to shake off the hay and dust.

"Well... I'm heading back to town now. Promised I'd look in on old Tate Yarnum. Check on that leg o' his."

Chris reached out and shook hands with Nathan. He slapped him on the back in a friendly gesture as Nathan walked by, giving a single wave as Nathan rode out.

"Tell the boys I'll be in town day after tomorrow," he yelled out behind Nathan.

"Sure, Chris. You take care now." Nathan waved once when urged his horse into a slow trot, quickly disappearing into the shrubs that bordered the western edge of the clearing.

Chris went back into the stable and sat for a while, watching the foal with its mama for a long while before finally pushing up from the dusty straw. Quickly, he settled into the chores, knowing there were plenty of them to keep a man busy all day. Dusk was settling over the land by the time he had washed away the sweat and grime of the day.

Night fell quickly and Chris moved indoors, having already checked the new mother and foal, gratefully sinking down onto his narrow bed. He was deeply asleep in minutes, dreaming of beautiful horses racing across sunlit meadows.

He awoke suddenly, with eyes, ears and mind keenly aware of his surroundings. The moon was casting a silvery glow through the window, with a faint night breeze ruffling the old curtains that Mary had insisted he took to make the shack more homely. Chris stared at the window, wondering what had called him from his exhaust-laden sleep, and then he heard the noise again, coming from near the corral. He pulled on his gun belt with the ease of long practice and then his pants and boots before stealing towards the door and pulling it open slowly.

The whinny of the mare rose in the night air, carried to him on the slight breeze, and Chris saw two shadows creeping through the door from the stable, pushing the awkward newborn foal between them.

Horse thieves, he thought as he raced across the yard, gun drawn and trigger finger steady. The men heard him; they whipped around, pulling their guns at the same time. Chris fired, taking out one of the thieves instantly with a perfect shot through the heart, but he gasped, flying forward as pain flared in his back. As he lay there gasping for breath over the intense pain, a pair of boots walked into his sight line. The man knelt, pulling back his hat so the moonlight struck his face.

"Mighty kind of you to donate those fine animals to our welfare fund. That handsome colt will be worth mucho dollars down Mexico way." The man rose to his feet and cocked his gun, aiming it down at Chris's head. "Gotta big hole in your back, son, and I ain't one to leave an animal in unnecessary suffering."

Chris tried to out-stare the unwinking black eye of the gun barrel staring straight down at him, jerking when he heard a shot but it had not come from the gun in the horse thief's hand. A horse came galloping in just as Chris's intended killer sank to his knees and flopped backwards; a bullet hole drilled in his head. The remaining man fled, and Chris could hear the quickly receding sound of a horse's hooves pounding the hard-baked land, knowing that the man had made good his escape. Chris's savior dropped to his knees beside him.

"Chris?"

"JD... What're you doing here?"

"What?" JD ripped off his bandanna and pressed it hard against the wound in Chris's back. "I--I came to see the foal. I didn't think you'd mind... and then I heard shooting and came at a gallop."

"The foal! JD... Make sure the foal's fine. Put him back with his mother."

"Chris, you're bleeding--"

"Do as I ask, JD. See to the foal."

JD raced away and Chris gritted his teeth from the pain as he listened to the sound JD made as he set mother and foal back together. He thought he must have blacked out for, suddenly, JD was kneeling down beside him again.

"I know Nathan frowns on anyone moving a man before he sees to him but I gotta move you, Chris. Sun's up in just a few more minutes, and it's gonna be another scorcher. Can't leave you lying out here while I ride for Nathan. Gotta get you to your shack."

Chris looked towards the horizon and saw the telltale lightening of the sky, heralding the dawn. He looked back and nodded at JD, knowing the kid was right. Bracing himself, he let JD take most of his weight as he gained his feet, crying out hoarsely as the bullet moved, sending spasms of pain spiking through him. Despite his normally impetuous nature, JD refused to take the walk faster than a funeral pace, and Chris guessed that JD wanted to make sure that bullet didn't keep on moving inside him. Climbing the few steps up to his porch was pure agony and he sobbed out his relief when JD lowered him face first on the bed. Chris held still as he felt JD's little pocket knife slice through the blood soaked material covering his back. He gritted his teeth as JD tore the cloth away carefully, teasing out anything pressing into the wound, and then he then pressed a wad of thick cloth against Chris's back to stem the flow of blood.

"Chris... I'm gonna have to bind this while I boil up some water 'cause I don't think you're gonna be able to hold it tight. And Nathan always boils up water before he cleans a wound. Says it stops infection getting in... But you know all that, any how, so I'll just do this..."

Chris groaned as JD continued talking as he fashioned a makeshift strap and fastened it securely.

"Don't go moving too much or it might slip."

He lay there for what seemed an eternity, his back on fire and burning harsher with every breath he took, while JD clattered around the shack. Eventually the younger man came back, bathing the wound with strips of still heated cloth he had boiled up in a separate pan. Chris bit down hard as he felt JD removing pieces of cloth caught in the wound, muffling his sob of pain in the bed linen lying below him as a cloth was pressed onto the wound and bound even tighter than before. JD tipped Chris's head and drizzled some cooled boiled water into his mouth. Until then he had not registered the raging thirst that meant he'd lost a lot of blood.

JD placed the refilled tin cup within easy reach.

"Done all I can, Chris. I'm gonna ride for Nathan now. You just hold on and I'll bring him back as quick as I can."

He heard JD race across the shack towards the door and yelled out. "JD?" The sound of moving feet stopped, and Chris opened one eye to see JD framed in the open doorway, staring back at him in a mixture of fear and concern. "You ain't a weasel."

JD grinned and raced away, calling reassurance to Chris over his shoulder as he mounted up and rode away like he had the Devil on his tail.

Chris could not tell how long JD had been gone but he knew it had to have been at least an hour, maybe more for the sun had cleared the tree line and was shining directly through the small window, and pushing back the dark shadows inside the shack. The single shaft of light caught his attention, and he watched the dust motes dancing in the beam, unsure why everything held such clarity and beauty,

Am I dying, he thought. Was he being granted one last chance to witness the beauty of this world before he left it?

 

The pounding of hooves drove away that thought and he felt a moment of fear as his sight began to dim. Gentle yet insistent hands caught at him and Chris reached up one hand to clasp Nathan's arm, squeezing it weakly.

"Can't leave ya alone for a day an' ya gotta find yourself trouble."

Despite the words, the tone was affectionate though tinged with concern, and Chris found a smile despite the renewed pain as Nathan peeled off the makeshift bandage and checked out the wound.

"Ya did a good job, JD... but that bullet's still in there an' it's gotta come out. Go set some more water a-boiling, and tear up more rags and set them a-boiling too."

Nathan handed the forceps and then a bullet probe to JD and told him to put them into the water, the cradle end down. Another small eternity passed while Chris waited for the worst to happen, and then Nathan handed him a piece of leather.

"Need ya to stay as still as ya can, Chris. Just bite down on that leather and I'll git that bullet out in no time."

The feel of the probe against his wound screamed through every nerve ending, and Chris bit down hard, his fingers curling into fists as he clenched the bed linen below him, using every ounce of his waning strength and willpower to keep from moving.

"Just a little longer... Got it."

Chris relaxed against the bed with a whimper, his head spinning and his stomach roiling, and to add further shame to his misery, he was sure he'd wet himself too. The pain from Nathan's hands cleaning and binding the gunshot wound seemed negligible in comparison, and he gave a shaky sigh as Nathan drizzled Laudanum into him and then set about undressing him and cleaning him before he and JD settled him back into a dry bed.

He had no idea how long he slept, but he awoke to a beautiful morning feeling as weak as that newborn foal. He closed his sleep encrusted eyes, and then opened them again when a shadow fell across him, staring deep into a pair of blue eyes.

"Buck?"

"Gave us quite a scare, Chris."

Chris tried to move and gasped as pain speared through his back. "Damn!"

"Ya might want to stay still for a while yet. Nathan says your a lucky man. Bullet ricocheted off the shoulder blade upwards instead of down, else it might've torn you up good inside and you'd be dead."

"Them horse thieves?"

"You got one of them. JD got another. Third one got clean away from here... but the boys are on his trail."

"What about--?"

"JD's been taking care of that prize mare and her foal."

"He's a beaut, ain't he?"

"What? JD? Hell he's--"

"The foal, Buck!"

Buck laughed. "Just fooling you, Chris. Yeah... he's a beaut."

Buck rose to his feet and stepped towards the door.

"Buck?" He turned and looked back at Chris with a quizzical expression. "JD's a beaut, too."

Buck grinned. "Yeah. He sure has turned into a fine colt... under my guidance."

THE END


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